He was the chess columnist for the New York Times from 1972 until his retirement in 2006, at 78.

Age: 83

Nationality: American

Job: Professor, writer Chess Grandmaster

4/

Judit Polgar is alleged to have an IQ of 170

The strongest female chess player in history, Polgar beat Bobby Fisher to become the youngest Grandmaster ever at 15 years, 5 months -- chess.com asserts she has an IQ of 170.

Polgar's father educated his three daughters at home with chess as the central subject. Judit is an International Master and her two sisters are Grandmasters.

The experiment belied the assumption that women were naturally weaker players, and strengthened the nurture over nature argument.

Age: 35

Nationality: Hungarian

Job: Chess Grandmaster, mother

5/

Sir Andrew Wiles is alleged to have an IQ of 170

In 1995, Wiles proved a 358 year old mathematical theory called Fermat's Last Theorem, which until then was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most difficult math problem" in the world -- according to Browse Biography he has an IQ of 170.

Proving the theorem also granted Wiles a small measure of popular celebrity. He was mentioned in an episode of Star Trek and in the second and third books of Stieg Larsson's popular trilogy.

He was knighted in 2000.

Age: 58

Nationality: English

Job: Mathematics professor: Princeton

6/

Jacob Barnett has a verified IQ of 170

YouTube

Jake didn't talk until he was almost three years old, when he started reciting the alphabet forward and backward.

James Woods is alleged to have an IQ of 180

Woods was a brilliant student who achieved a perfect 800 on the verbal and 779 on the math portions of the pre-1995 SAT. He attended MIT on scholarship and was described by IMDb as having an IQ of 180.

Woods enrolled in a linear algebra course at UCLA while still in high school before accepting the full scholarship to MIT.

Age: 64

Nationality: American

Job: Actor

11/

Marilyn vos Savant has a verified IQ of 186

In 1985, The Guinness Book of World Records accepted vos Savant's IQ score of 190, and according to marilynvossavant.com, crowned her the woman with the highest IQ for five consecutive years -- she has tested as high as 228 on various IQ tests.

vos Savant was an outspoken critic of fellow genius, Andrew Wiles' Fermat Theorem, and wrote a book in 1993 asserting his methodology in the proof was flawed.

In 1995, following accusations that she did not fully understand various mathematical theories, she retracted her assertions and allowed for Wiles' methods.

Age: 64

Nationality: American

Job: Author

12/

Garry Kasparov is alleged to have an IQ of 190

In 2003 Kasparov played to a draw against a chess computer that could calculate three million positions per second.

According to chess.nuvvo.com a German study found Kasparov to have an IQ of 135, other sources put the number as high as 190.

Kasparov contends that IBM cheated during the computerized match where he was defeated by Deep Blue in 1997. He said he saw, "deep intelligence and creativity" in the computers moves that could only have come from human assistance.

IBM denied the allegation, refused to provide Kasparov with log files from the game, and retired the machine -- proof to Kasparov of "evidence tampering."

Age: 47

Nationality: Azerbaijanian

Job: Chess Grandmaster, writer, political activist

13/

Philip Emeagwali is alleged to have an IQ of 190

Emeagwali left school in 1967, at 13, to fight in the Nigerian-Biafran war, completed a self-study high school equivalency, got a B.S. in Math from Oregon State and three Master's Degrees in Math, Environmental and Marine Engineering from various schools.

Emeagwali sat for his Ph.D at the University of Michigan from 1987-1991, but when he was denied the degree he sued UM school for racial discrimination.

The case made it to the Michigan Court of Appeals where it was finally dismissed.

Age: 56

Nationality: Nigerian

Job: Writer, speaker

14/

Christopher Michael Langan has a verified IQ of 195

Langan achieved a perfect score on the SAT, but dropped out of Montana State University after concluding his professors weren't qualified to teach him anything -- ABC's 20/20 measured his IQ between 195 and 210.

Langan began talking at six months, and taught himself to read when he was three.

He says he lived a double life for years, manual labor during the day and complex equations in his head at night.

Tao says he learned to read by watching Sesame Street in Western Australia.

Age: 35

Nationality: Australian

Job: Mathematician

18/

William James Sidis is alleged to have had an IQ of 275

wikipedia commons

With an IQ between 250 and 300, Sidis has one of the highest intelligence quotients ever recorded.

Entering Harvard at the ago of 11, he was fluent in more than 40 languages by the time he graduated and worked his way into adulthood.

Embittered over a 1918 arrest under the Sedition Act, Sidis spent the years from 1921 till his death at 46 in 1944 running adding machines and doing only menial tasks.

Nationality: Ukrainian American

Job: Psychiatrist

19/

BONUS: Sharon Stone is alleged to have an IQ of 154

Stone is widely reputed to have an IQ of 154. She also said she was a Mensa member, but retracted this claim in 2002.

At the age of 15 she accepted a scholarship to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where she studied creative writing and fine arts. She described herself as "a nerdy, ugly duckling," according to her online biography at Penn State University Library.